After struggling to an opening round of 77, which produced not a single birdie, Tiger Woods withdrew from the Dubai Desert Classic – citing lower back spasms – per his agent Mark Steinberg.
“Tiger Woods went into a spasm in his lower back fairly late last night… got treatment done early this morning for 3 1/2 hours, but can’t get it out. He says it’s not the nerve, but back spasms, and he can’t get the spasms to calm down. He can move around, but he can’t make a full rotation in his swing.” -Mark Steinberg
Following his missed cut at Torrey Pines in the Farmers Insurance Open last week, Woods actually voiced concern about his back, and how it would hold up on the 17-hour flight to the United Emirates.
“I’m concerned how my body going to handle flights. Flying out here to Torrey Pines was something I hadn’t done in a while. So now we’ve got a pretty good jaunt, 17 hours. It will be good.”
Here’s the official post from the European Tour.
Not all is wasted: The WD should give Woods more time to tend to his golf course project in Dubai.